The situation got worse during a 20 days´ holiday at Cesenatico, where, instead
of breathing the sea air I preferred looking at the traffic in the city centre crowded
with foreign tourists with their cars, sights not to be missed and unthinkable in
my country.

Harvesting grapesIn 1963 the first issues of “Quattroruote” were published and in 1964 my
subscription was earned by harvesting grapes. I remember I enjoyed every page,
from the cover to the Vokswagen adverts, from the sketches of the new models
to the pictures of the prototype races. But the best were the cutaway drawings.
Surely I have trained myself more by reading magazines than by school books!
As regards school: I decided to attend the Industrial Technical Institute in Mode-
na for my higher education. During those five years there were two things I liked:
1) The roar of the Ferrari engines that were tested on the old circuit.
2) The sight of the Fiat showroom on the opposite side of the road.
After graduation, I immediately sent four job applications to DeTomaso, Lambor-
ghini, Maserati and Scaglietti. In March 1972 I started my three months´ trial
period at Carozzeria Scaglietti, right between the Dinos and Daytonas. I didn't
know where to look! My first chief was nobody less than the son of Giulio Borsari,
the famous Ferrari F1 chief mechanic. So sometimes I came to hear quite a lot of
race adventures!

Good with a pencilThen, one day an incident happened which might have decided my final en-
gagement: my office, 'time analysis', shared the room with the HR department.
One day, a fly insistently bothered the HR chief and when the insect passed near
me I knocked it down with my pencil. Surprise and admiration was my share, so
since that day I´ve been “good with a pencil" for everyone!
In 1973 the production of 365 GT4 BB (Berlinetta Boxer) began, and I moved to
another office where it was my job to show all the parts which formed the body of
the cars by means of drawings. The new list with the pictures made the job of
several departments much easier and I got more and more appreciated. Often
someone came along, stopped, looked at my drawings and said: “What a
beautiful gift of nature!” Sometimes, annoyed, I answered: “Oh no, this compli-
ment fits a Playboy bunny, not me!" In these years, in my spare time, I made my
first drawings which gave me the opportunity to start a collaboration with
“Autosprint”, a specialised magazine.
In 1975 I drew the cross section of the new 308 GTB which was used in the
brochure of the car (when I look at that drawing now I feel ashamed, luckily it
does not bear my signature!). In 1977 I agreed to move to Ferrari's historical
department at Via Trento Trieste, to work for the technical publications
department (user and service manuals and spare-parts handbooks). These were
exceptional years, my job had almost become a hobby, I could often see F1
drivers and team captains and it happened that I heard news before it was
published in the media! Besides, there were special customers or historical
dealers: I could assist in the realisation of racing cars desired by Mr. Chinetti of
Nart (North America racing team) or by the French dealer Charles Pozzi.
At the same time, at the end of the seventies, thanks to my spare time job, I got
to know engineer Dallara. The first drawing I made for him is the cross section of
the FIAT X1/9. From that moment a collaboration with Dallara had been born,
which lasted more than 20 years.
Computers appear
At the end of the eighties changes increasingly began to accelerate both in
method and in the means of working. The first computers appeared and external
staff were ordered to produce spare-parts handbooks by the factory. My job
began to be less intensive and the idea to fix a date to go and work by myself
was making its way in my mind. After a period of twenty years, two months and
two weeks I made my leap in the dark in 1992 and in good understanding I gave
up my job at Ferrari with which I continued to collaborate for another ten years in
the realisation of user and service manuals for Ferrari cars.
Meanwhile Dallara obtained success after success and my tasks for the engineer
from Parma increased accordingly. The most demanding work was the catalogue
of the Ferrari F333 SP, appreciated also by engineer Limone, at the time the
chief of the Fiat racing department. This way, a good collaboration began in 1995
and I made the drawings for the spare-parts handbooks of the racing cars by Alfa
Romeo and Fiat. Aboard my new motorhome, with my wife, our trips to Chivasso
(seat of ex-Lancia factory) and Arese became comfortable and almost felt like
holidays.Everything went smoothly and during these years almost all the racing
cars made in Italy had their catalogue drawn by me.

In 2004 Fiat quit racing and new computer programs took the place of my hand-
made drawings. This meant goodbye to everybody, but no problem because I had
expected this to happen sooner or later! I had to turn the page.
I abandoned my technical drawing pens, and began to use brushes and tubes of
paint and tried to teach myself a new hobby that, I wish, could become almost a
new job. At present, I occasionally collaborate with Ferrari and its Museums in
Modena and Maranello. And some private interest in my drawings is starting to
appear.
Maybe... a new chapter is about to start!"

Sante Lusuardi, automotive artistSante's life told by himselfA lifetime of sketching for the
major car companies around Modena.

"The first car that attracted my attention was
a Ford Anglia parked near a fuel station on
the opposite side of the street. I was a child
behind the window of my doctor´s waiting
room and I tried to draw it on the glass,
copying that strange shape, due to the
unusual slant of its rear window.
Just at that moment, at the doctor's, I was
contaminated with the “virus”!

Sante's Work Through the Eyes of a Journalist

From the article written by journalist Stefania Ferrari "Portraits of luxury" in the
magazine "Collezionismo" of February 2011:

The picture is so perfect that the glow of the body is dazzling, you can seem to
smell the scent of wax and of the leather interior. With tempera paint, Sante
reproduces cars that have always been objects of desire, every part is duplicated
in detail, providing an image almost realer than real because of the experience
imbued by knowledge from technical drawing, which Sante Lusuardi did for a
living for decades.

Born in Correggio in 1951, a small town in the province of Reggio Emilia, this shy
artist is dedicated to the reproduction of luxury cars, especially Fiat and Ferrari,
where Sante used to work as a technical draftsman. "My job was to produce
images for the maintenance manuals and spare parts, and then, quite suddenly,
my work was replaced by a computer programme that prints all the technical
parts perfectly. My contributions were no longer needed, so I retired and I offered
my services as a freelancer," says the artist. "With tempera I paint the cars that I
have always drawn and sometimes my works are commissioned by the same car
companies, especially in special circumstances".
For example? "On the occasion of sixty years of Ferrari I illustrated a book in two
volumes in which all the car models produced are reproduced in 260 paintings of
profiles. Or upon the launch of a new model."

We flip through the panels, which contain the winding shapes of cars unattainable
for most people, the drawings bewitch with chrome and shiny shades and
aggressive and snappy lines so detailed even the highest definition commercial
video cannot reproduce it with the same definition.
Then, however, among the other works, we suddenly see one that is completely
different: only black and white, the streak that indulges in its charm of light and
shadow, expertly made with precise and irrevocable strokes.

The beauty of the design oozes a bit 'vintage', cartoon-style luxury of the '50s and
'60s, a little Pop Art little pop and very rich & luxury. Then another painting, which
looks like an unfinished work but this is not. In reality it is an evolution, something
which, perhaps, is a luxury Lusuardi likes to allow himself sometimes: set aside
for a moment the habit of the technician to indulge more artistic feelings, the
more emotional vision that binds him to his subject and that ensues something
that influences the accuracy of detail: complete, but left to the imagination of the
beholder.

Is there a dream to be fulfilled? "I'd like to open an atelier, similar to one that I
saw in France long time ago: it was a small space, triangolar. Inside, the artist, a
woman, was painting a green tractor on a canvas, I can still remember it. I would
like to find similar space, in order to draw my cars," Sante Lusuardi surprisingly
reveals. An artist dedicated to precision that imagines himself a small bohemian
corner.

Work of Sante; book "Ferrari 60", book "laFerrari 2007", cross section of the 308GTB and poster in
3 X 6 meters for "le grandi sfide" exposition at Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari in Modena